Daily Archives: December 31, 2013

After having followed the evolution of a band closely for over a dozen years, going back to the beginning and listening again starting with their first album, but with contemplative ears, is a bit refreshing. For The Dave Matthews Band, the “beginning” is another 10+ years before I had even started listening to them. I started getting in to DMB in the fall of 2003, while working construction in Western Massachusetts with my friend Nate. Nate had a few of their CDs, and we were doing some mindless work, so we would just binge listen to their albums. It wasn’t long after I had started working with him that I had bought my first DMB album, The Central Park concert. From there, I now have amassed a collection of almost every official release and a plethora of the fan recorded shows as well. Ironically, I’m not a fan of jam band music, which is what most people would classify DMB as. Jam bands remind me of that one person who exists in every group of friends that just won’t shut up once they start talking. They’re the ones who, especially when they have a good point, ruin it by their inability to give their vocal cords a three minute break. I find it the same with most jam bands. If I find myself enjoying a song by a jam band, nine times out of ten a minute later I’m begging them to stop playing the same boring, repetitive string of notes, as I fight back the tears that I had been bored to. But, there is definitely something more to the Dave Matthews Band. The musicianship, the talent of each and every member, and the introspective lyrics set them apart from their contemporaries. With this blog I aim to take time to focus on each of the official releases, in the best chronological order of their release that I can. This will include studio albums, official live releases, the Live Trax series, the DMBlive series, as well as the solo projects and as many guesting track as I can dig up. I will try to stay away from the generic style album reviews, as I find those tend to be boring. There’s a lot of ground to cover, so check back often!